Elgato Game Capture HD Review

Rating: 4.3 stars

The Elgato Game Capture HD is made for pure game capture, with its ability to capture analog video, save it to your PC, and allow you to review these captured videos later. Videos captured with the Elgato Game Capture HD can be exported to video editing software for any potential post production.

Elgato Game Capture HD introduction

1 Key Features

The Elgato Game Capture HD is excellent for simple game capture. First is the obvious ability to capture gameplay videos and save them to a computer. This is the basic feature when you connect the capture card, from which you can access other features, including live streaming. The Elgato capture card comes with the ability to stream to either YouTube or Twitch with the click of one button. Both XSplit and OBS directly support Elgato Game Capture HD.

The live commentary ability of this capture card is well adapted to make for an enjoyable live stream. The capture card HD allows you to find the perfect balance between audio in game and your voiced commentary, and can automatically lower the volume of your game any time there is input from your microphone.

For viewing other than capture card, the Elgato Game Capture HD comes with the ability to quickly cut footage into sections at any point on the timeline. It doesn't have many editing tools, but the ones it does have work remarkably well. For more powerful editing, you will need to pass them to whatever dedicated editing software you might have.

The capture card HD itself can capture video as high in quality as 1080p using either an HDMI cable or component input.

2 Operating System

The Elgato Game Capture HD is compatible with both PC and Mac for uploading videos.

3 Price

The Elgato Game Capture HD can be purchased on Amazon for $135.99

4 Ease of use

The Elgato capture card HD very simple to use. Simply plug an HDMI cable (or other cable as necessary) into your device, and then to the “in” port of the unit, plug another cable from the TV to the “out” port of the unit, and connect the device to your Mac or PC using a USB cable.

5 Input/Output

The Elgato Game Capture HD comes with an HDMI cable and a special PS3 cable so you can stream games using the A/V In port on your PS3. The PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One can all be connected to the device via HDMI. Play on older gaming consoles can be recorded using Component or Composite cables. An adapter for this is included with the device.

6 Size and Weight

The Elgato Game Capture HD is relatively small in size, at 3” x 4.35” x 1”. It is also fairly lightweight, at only 1.25 pounds.

Elgato Game Capture HD Setup

This capture device is incredibly simple to setup. Just follow these directions:

Plug an HDMI cable (or Component cable) into the device you will be using to play.

Plug the other end of that cable into the “in,” port on the Elgato Game Capture HD

Plug an HDMI cable (or Component cable) into your television.

Plug the other end of that cable into the “out,” port on the device.

Use a USB cord to connect the Elgato Game Capture HD to your PC.

The PS4 requires a few extra steps:

Start up your PlayStation 4 without connecting the device.

Go to “Settings.”

Disable HDCP

Follow steps 1-7 above.

The Elgato Game Capture HD has a one-click live stream to Twitch option. To use it, do the following:

In the Elgato Game Capture HD software, press the “+” button next to the “Account” option.

A new window will pop up, asking you to authorize Game Capture HD to use your Twitch account.

Enter your Twitch username and password, and click sign in.

Your Twitch account will now appear in the “Live Streaming” section of the software. Select the server that is closest to you, or has the lowest network latency.

Press the “Live Streaming” button, which looks like a globe with an arrow. In the dialog box that warns about lowered quality, click “Start Streaming.”

Comparison

Elgato offers four different products for video game capture and streaming: HD, HD60, HD60 S, and HD60 Pro. The Elgato Game Capture HD is the only one that allows for retro gaming input, but lacks 1080p60 capture and instant gameview. The HD60 also lacks instant gameview, but unlike the HD60 S, has the ability to save a master copy of your live stream, while live streaming. The HD60 S offers instant gameview, but, as mentioned before, lacks the ability to capture gameplay from retro games. The HD 60 Pro is the only capture device in this family that doesn’t use USB (either 2.0 or 3.0, depending on the model) to save to the users PC or Mac, but instead it is installed using PCIe.